Hugo Chavez breathing problem worsens, struggles to recover

Caracus: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s breathing problems have worsened and he is suffering from a “severe” new respiratory infection as he struggles to recover from cancer surgery.
The 58-year-old socialist leader has not been seen in public nor heard from in almost three months since undergoing the operation in Cuba. It was his fourth surgery since the disease was detected in mid-2011.
The government said he had trouble speaking because he was breathing through a tracheal tube, but that he was giving orders to ministers by writing them down. “The commander-president remains clinging to Christ and to life, conscious of the difficulties that he is facing, and complying strictly with the program designed by his medical team,” Villegas said.
Chavez had undergone several grueling rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, which at times left him bald and bloated. He twice wrongly declared himself cured. The only sight of the former soldier since his latest operation was four photos published by the government while he was still in Havana, showing him lying in a hospital bed.
Following an emotional Mass at the military hospital on Friday, Vice President Nicolas Maduro – Chavez’s preferred successor if he is unable to carry on as president – said the president had decided for himself several days earlier that he would return to Venezuela from Cuba. Chavez was going to begin a “tougher and more intense” phase of his treatment, Maduro said, and he wanted to be in Caracas.
Opposition leaders have accused Maduro of repeatedly lying about the president’s real condition. Several dozen anti-government student protesters have chained themselves up in public to demand proof that Chavez is alive and in Venezuela. “I can’t even imagine the party they’re going to have tomorrow with this news,” pro-Chavez commentator Mario Silva said on state TV on Monday night. “But we all have to keep faith.”
Should the Venezuelan leader step down or die, an election would be held within 30 days and would probably pit Maduro against opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavez in a presidential election in October. The stakes are also high for the rest of Latin America. Chavez has been the most vocal critic of Washington in the region and has funded hefty aid programs for leftist governments from Bolivia to Cuba.